Poultry training continues

Shelley Hartmann looked very relaxed behind her desk as she summed up the latest Green Energy Nevada LLC events.

“Class is going very well. We recently had a test our students did well on; they are very enthusiastic for Armed Forces Day weekend when they graduate,” Hartmann said.

Hartmann herself kept busy over the last week by rounding up guest speakers from various government agencies. “I’ve been talking to the USDA, the health department, the sheriff’s department or anyone who they may interact with, so they’re accustomed to meeting with these people,” Hartmann said.

GEN also leaped over a major hurdle when Mineral County commissioners signed off on the land development plan. Now that the investors own the land, they can move forward and start development.

“We plan to start meeting with local businesses, or people who want to start their own local business in the retail section. Until we know how many small businesses want to be in the mini mall, we can’t let the architects start designing a building,” Hartmann said.

“We’re meeting with any local businesses that might want to be anchor businesses, so GEN has opened up the whole to anyone local who has a business already. If you want to work with GEN, contact me,” Hartmann added.

“We’re not done with getting land because they already have so many people ready to buy their product, we’re already out of land for people wanting to come and move to Hawthorne. We’re talking to the base about more land and we’re looking at other land in the county that might be appropriate. Product buyers turned out to be more interested than we thought this early in the game,” Hartmann said.

Hartmann said there are already major vendors wanting everything the farm can produce, and they don’t have a single chicken yet. Chicken breeders are already knocking on our door showcasing everything they’ve got, Hartman said. She also added one breeder was talking about running the research and development, so they can test how different breeds perform.

“One company called and wanted to send us 2,000 chickens today, and we’re not ready yet, but hold that thought, and when we have a coop, send it then. With the class coming along, we’re almost to the hands-on stage,” Hartmann said.

“We’re already being contacted by contractors in the region who want to do the construction work, and all the contractor suppliers who want to work. We’ll be putting together events so they can all see the scope of the project and start seeing the preliminary drawings, so they can start making their proposals,” Hartmann said.

At this point, Hartmann said the plan calls for raising laying chickens. Hartmann says the company discussed raising chickens for meat but tabled the idea until a later date. Hartmann did say that the idea of raising meat chickens generated a lot of interest.

The company’s main focus is just getting operational; working with the architects and getting the employees trained. They’ve been working so hard learning regulations that we decided to give them a break, and we treated to a barbecue—chicken, of course,” Hartmann laughed and said.